Question about doing chapter7 paper work yourself

I have a question about doing the paperwork yourself or getting one of the many online companies to do it for you v/s paying the high price of an attorney. Has anyone here filed the paperwork themselves or had one of the online preparers do it for you? If so could someone please share their experiences and which of the online agencies are the best to go with.


Thanks so much any info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Johnita

I have done the paperwork for Chapter 7 myself.

I would not really recommend going with an online preparer. All you are doing is paying them to fill in the blanks for you. They cannot give you any legal advice. So you are paying them to do something you can do yourself as long as you can follow directions.

I am getting ready to do my sister's chapter 7 and I believe that I can do it for her...I am confident that if I have any questions I can get the answers here. I filed a chpater 7 in 2003 myself but hired an attorney for $1,300.00 but I was married then and had my name listed on the deed of the home. Her's will be a simple chaper 7 the only thing is #1 she has a garnishment coming out of her check and #2 she is getting child support for one child, I don't think that will be much of an issue.

Good luck on which ever decision that you make if you have any question please post them.

It's like goudah says all you are going to do is pay them to fill in the blanks when you can do it yourself and save the money that you would be paying them to do.

Thanks so much everyone for the fast replies. I have another question, where do you get the papers that need to filled out to file? I'm really not sure how to go about a lot of this, but I'd really like to look into filing myself v/s paying the attorney fees which I can't afford.


Thanks,
Johnita

Check the website in the state that you reside in under the federal bankruptcy court website it is there.

There are so many forms on the website. Did anyone here file in New York?

I'm in Virginia is where I'll be filing from and I found the website but there is a lot of forms, I'm actually considering just trying to save the money and paying an attorney I'm afraid I"ll do something wrong and mess it up. For the ones of you that has done it yourself was the paper work pretty easy to complete? I was reading on the website it says it doesn't advise anyone to do it themselves as if anything were to be left out it could cause your case to be dismissed and I'm worried I could do something wrong. Again for those of you who filed yourself did you have any trouble at all with the paperwork or was it pretty straight forward?

Thanks,
Johnita

If you aren't comfortable doing it yourself I completely understand. Have you had a consult with a bankruptcy attorney yet? Check your local phone book under bankruptcy attorney's alot of them offer free consultations that at least will give you an idea of how much they will charge you. Some of them may offer payment plans for you to set up in regards to paying for the fees of paperwork preparation and filing fees at the bankruptcy court.

I thought it was fairly easy, but that could just be me too . . . I was afraid I would mess something up also, but had no problems at all. It also depends on your case. I had no secured debt, and no real property, so it was a very straightforward chapter 7 case.

One thing you can do also is call your BK courthouse. They can tell you what forms you will need to file.

If you aren't comfortable doing it yourself, see if you can find an attorney that will do a payment plan. That way you won't have to pay fees and costs up front but will be able to pay a little at a time. Most will expect all or the bulk of hte fees and costs to be paid before they file which is entirely reasonable.

The attorney I consulted with last week had the best pay plan I've come across so far. I like the structure and his willingness to work with me if I feel I can't stick to it. His fee is $700 and the filing fee is $299 right now. The consult was free and very thorough. When I'm ready to get started, I'm to pay $300 and they will give me the paperwork to fill out the info they need for the petition. When I return the paperwork, he expects another $300 and then the final payment before they file. If I can't pay the entire final, he'll work with me but still expects it to be paid in full by the day we go to court. There may be additional fees like the Homestead Deed and definately the credit counseling requirement but he made sure to outline all of that for me so I know what to expect. And he expects everything within 4 months of the first payment or he closes his file and reimburses anything unearned (he even detailed what each stage of work costs in case you decide to stop in the middle of the process).

When you consult with an attorney, make sure they tell you everything during the consult. Ask for a breakdown of attorney's fees, filing fees and any additional costs that MAY be incurred so you aren't hit with any surprises. Any firm that isn't willing to give you that amount of detail is one you don't want to deal with. Research online and ask lots of questions and if they don't want to answer them, take your business elsewhere.

For Chapter 7 filings, just about every attorney will want everything paid upfront. Yeah, they will let you make monthly payments to them, but they also won't file until everything is paid. So if you can wait a few months to get the attorney paid you are okay. If you need to file immediatly, then it's not the best option.

For Chapter 13, most attorney's are actually paid in the 13 plan, so they will file without payment in full.

In general how much does an attorney cost for filing a chapter 7. What's a typical price?


Thanks in advance,
Johnita

Including the filing fees, around $1000 to $1500.

If you are looking at just Attorney fees, from about $800 to $1200 is about average for a Chapter 7. The filing fee is $299.